


The Monster's Enemies

by Rinkafic



Series: Keri 'verse [19]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Gen, Kid Fic, Next Generation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-15
Updated: 2012-05-15
Packaged: 2017-11-05 10:51:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/405588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rinkafic/pseuds/Rinkafic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Another peek at the next generation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Monster's Enemies

Artie hated being the smallest kid in his class. No one picked on him, his twin TJ made sure of that and everyone was afraid of Chloe. But he hated that he couldn’t keep up with the others, that he had problems breathing if he ran around too much and then he had to use the inhaler. If he pulled out the inhaler, everyone looked at him and then they started to baby him and he really disliked that. Sometimes, he waited until his chest was burning and he couldn’t stand it anymore, he waited until the very last minute before he took out the inhaler.

His dads were just as bad as the teachers. They treated him like he was fragile. Boys shouldn’t be fragile; at least that was what Artie thought. When he had an attack and the teachers called one of his dads, inevitably, there would be a scene when he got home. Daddy would be quiet and worried and would watch Artie very closely for the rest of the day. Papa would be the loud one; he’d talk a lot and flutter his hands and touch Artie’s face and chest as if he was making sure he was still there. If Daddy let Papa get away with it, Artie wouldn’t go to school the next day, he’d go to the greenhouses and ‘study in the quiet’ as Papa would say. Papa was a bit peculiar about his ‘little green children’ and their environments.

The inhaler was the enemy he had to put up with.

He also had to put up with frequent visits to the infirmary. He was there so often that he was the only kid in the city that called the doctors by their first names, everyone else had to call them Doctor Fraiser or Doctor Lam or Doctor Biro. He liked Janet the best, she would joke with him and if she had time, she would play a game or two on a datapad with him while they waited for test results. She seemed a little sad to Artie, and lonely. He was just a kid, so he felt weird about asking her why.

One day his curiosity got the better of him and he asked Daddy about it. If you wanted to know anything about things and people in Atlantis, you had to ask Daddy, it was his job to know things. Daddy had shaken his head sadly. The only thing he would tell Artie was that Janet had lost someone that she had loved very much. Artie figured that it was probably Ian’s dad, but he didn’t ask. He thought it would make Janet sad, so he didn’t mention it, but he tried to be good for her so that she didn’t make faces when she read his test results.

Artie couldn’t help that he misbehaved a lot. He got bored and when he got bored, he tried to find things to do. He might be the littlest, and the only one in his class that had to take medicine every day and have tests in the infirmary every week, but the city liked him more than any of the other kids, even more than the Mitchell kids. Because the city liked him best, she helped him find things to do. His dads and the other grown ups called him The Monster, Tristan was TJ, and Chloe was Daddy’s Princess, but Artie had always been The Monster. He kind of liked it; it was a nickname for a bigger, stronger kid. It made Artie feel kind of normal.

Once, before he knew better, he had gotten the idea that maybe it was the little pills he had to take every morning with his breakfast that were keeping him small. After all, Chloe and TJ didn’t take pills and they were big, TJ was one of the biggest in the class, except for Colt. He decided to not take the pills and then he would get bigger. He pretended to put the pill in his mouth and then he would hide it under the edge of his breakfast plate and then he took it to his room and put it in his sock drawer.

That had not been a good idea. Janet and Carolyn had made faces at his test results when he went to the infirmary that week. He was old enough that he went by himself. Janet had called Daddy and he had come right down and he made faces at the test results too. Artie was supposed to take two pills after that. Before his next visit - his dads always called his appointments visits - he fainted in math class. It was embarrassing; everyone was looking at him when he opened his eyes. Commander Sheppard had Artie in his lap and was talking to Daddy on his radio and he was more worried than any of his other teachers got.

He ended up in the infirmary, and after a while, he confessed to Janet that he hadn’t been taking his pills. She pressed her lips together and went away without saying anything to him. That made him sad because he didn’t like that Janet was upset at him. When she came back, she had Kate with her. Janet took Daddy by the arm and pulled him out of the little curtain room. Kate sat down on the chair next to his bed and asked him why he had hidden his medicine.

He was caught so there was no use in lying about it, he told her his idea. Then he told her about the inhaler. She talked to him for a long time, and when she left, Artie felt like a stupid little kid for doing what he had done. During their talk, Kate had told him about how close he had come to dying when he was just born. He had not known about that, no one had ever told him before. She made him see that the way his dads treated him was because at first they had been so scared that he was going to die, and later they were concerned about his heart and lungs.

Feeling bad about making his dads worry; he promised that he would do what the doctors said and that he would take his medicine. As she left, Kate told him where her office was and that he should come and see her after school if he ever wanted to talk about anything that was bothering him. No one had to know what they talked about, it would stay between them.

When Daddy came in, he rubbed Artie’s head and kissed his cheek. “Gave us a scare, Monster.”

“Sorry, Daddy. I won’t do it again, I was stupid.”

“Tell you what, buddy, why don’t we keep this incident between you and me? I think it might get Papa pretty riled up. Janet said you’re fine, there’s no permanent damage, so I don’t think he has to know _exactly_ why you passed out.”

“You’re not going to tell him?” Artie asked, surprised.

Daddy shook his head. “I think in this case, it might do more harm than good for him to know all the details.” He pointed a finger at Artie and then at himself and back again. “We know, I think that’s enough.”

Artie nodded and held his arms open for a hug.

His stupid idea was never brought up again. Other ones were, but never the one about the pills.

 

The End


End file.
